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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23290330">My Inner Voice Sounds Like You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostwriter98/pseuds/Ghostwriter98'>Ghostwriter98</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aperitif reimagining, Criminal profiler Will, Other, Partners in Crime, Science Fiction, Virtual partner Hannibal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:07:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23290330</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostwriter98/pseuds/Ghostwriter98</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>All FBI trainees (and unstable criminal profilers) are given a virtual partner for support. Will is certain something is terribly wrong with his though. For one, the technology demands to be called Hannibal and it seems to defy all its protocols.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>115</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>My Inner Voice Sounds Like You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Wow, I can't believe it's been over a year since I posted. Hi. Here's a thing I've been thinking about for a while. It's a short one shot because science fiction isn't my strong suit.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Don’t move,” Will ordered with his gun drawn. His hands shook where they were outstretched before him. Will prayed the suspect didn’t notice the tremors and stayed still.  </p><p>“Garret Jacob Hobbs,” Hannibal informed slowly after a quick scan through the lens covering Will’s eyes. The words were whispered almost leisurely into Will’s ear through his earpiece. A list of information appeared in his lens followed by Hannibal’s voice narrating it:</p><p>Age: 41</p><p>Occupation: Pipe threader</p><p>Daughter: Abigail Hobbs</p><p>Relationship status: Married</p><p>Spouse: Louise Hobbs</p><p>Hannibal paused, obviously remembering Will’s earlier exclamation of <em>“Oh God, who’s that? Christ, she’s bleeding out. I can’t stop it!”</em></p><p>“Spouse most likely deceased,” Hannibal added.</p><p>Hannibal was speaking as though Garret wasn’t holding a kitchen knife to his daughter’s throat and they had all the time in the world for him to dig around for unimportant data.</p><p>Will fought down the rising urge to tell Hannibal (because he refused to be called S.A.M like the other VPs) to shut the fuck up. Jack Crawford said that virtual partners were meant to help trainees (and Will supposed unstable criminal profilers now) get on their feet. They offered advice and stability in times of distress, yet all Hannibal had succeeded in doing as of late was rile Will up.</p><p>“Hannibal,” Will whispered, trying to keep the desperation in his voice at bay. He didn’t want Garret to know how nervous he was. “What do I do?”</p><p>“Calculating the best course of action,” Hannibal hummed and started playing some calming tune as if Will was on hold while phoning some retail company and not in the middle of a fucking life or death situation.</p><p>“Hannibal,” Will hissed because Garret was slowly digging the knife deeper into his daughter’s pale neck. A droplet of blood welled and trickled down her throat. <em>“Hannibal.”</em></p><p>“Disarm.”</p><p>“Obviously, but do I -” Garret’s hand jerked. The knife moving with the intention to kill.</p><p>“Shoot,” Hannibal urged. Will pulled the trigger.<strong> BANG!</strong> A gunshot sounded, splintering the air around them. Will recoiled backwards because he’d forgotten to hold his stance. Too nervous, too scared.</p><p>Garret fumbled backwards and then moved towards Will with fire burning in his eyes. </p><p>“Shoot.”</p><p>
  <strong>BANG!</strong>
</p><p>And Will did -</p><p>“Shoot.”</p><p>
  <strong>BANG!</strong>
</p><p>- again and again and again with each order from Hannibal. Artificial intelligence was usually hardwired to save human lives but exceptions were made for police issued gear. Hannibal was programmed to protect Will’s life and those of innocents. Killers were expendable. Garret was expendable. More than expendable.</p><p><em>Garret deserves to die</em>, Will wasn't sure if it was him or Hannibal who had that last thought.</p><p>Will felt a tight hand grip onto his calf.  </p><p>“See,” Garret wheezed up at him, yellow teeth bared. “See.”</p><p>Will looked down and boy did he see. Nine bullet wounds. This wasn’t the work of a calm collected officer of the law. This was the work of someone with no impulse control, who couldn’t stop themselves, who enjoyed the vibration of their gun with each shot. Blood was everywhere, splattered along the white kitchen counter and smothered on the light flooring. The smell floated in the air, metallic and strong. A constant reminder of what he and Hannibal had done.</p><p>“Very good, Will. How beautifully cruel you are in your righteousness. I will replay this moment often,” Hannibal purred and for a moment, Will’s virtual partner didn’t sound like it usually did. Its voice was filled with pride and warmth. Not at all like the dull monotone Will was used to. Not at all like technology was supposed to sound. It was enough to have Will dropping his gun with a clatter. Hannibal sounding human frightened him.</p><p>Abigail was wheezing in the corner, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.</p><p>“H-help her. How do I-I help her?” Will stuttered, voice shaking. He was going into shock, probably. That didn’t seem to bother Hannibal.</p><p>“Approach the victim and cup the wound with your hand. Yes, like that. Now, elevate her head.” Will followed Hannibal’s instructions to the letter. It was what he was taught to do. If Will couldn’t trust his instincts, he could trust his virtual partner. Usually, Will would be more skeptical, listening to Hannibal before deciding whether or not he <em>wanted </em>to follow its - his - instructions. Right now though, after having killed his first man, Will was on autopilot and did what he was told. Hannibal had the entirety of the internet at his metaphorical fingertips, after all, able to research solutions for the most difficult situations in a blink of an eye. Hannibal was most likely rifling through medical information now at some ridiculously fast speed searching for the best way to save a person with a cut throat.</p><p>Will sat there, hands clasped around the bloody girl’s neck, elevating it up to help her breathe, and suddenly it was all too much. His breathing began to speed up and his throat tightened until it became harder to breathe and harder to think. The panic was stifling, all consuming.</p><p>“Breathe, Will,” Hannibal soothed. “Breathe.”</p><p>But Will couldn’t hear him anymore. All he could hear was the sound of sirens in the distance growing louder and closer.</p><p>“What have we done?” Will whispered to himself, looking at Garret with his lifeless eyes and bullet riddled body. “Oh God, what have we done?”</p><p>“What have <em>you</em> done, dear Will,” Hannibal corrected him.</p><p>Abigail looked up at Will but not with the grateful eyes one devotes to a savour. Her eyes were filled with fear. She was looking up at him like he was the same as her father. A killer.</p><p>And suddenly Will didn’t want to hold her together anymore.</p><p>“Then don’t.”</p><p>Will jumped, not having realised he’d been talking out loud until Hannibal responded.</p><p>“I can’t,” Will pleaded.</p><p>“Of course you can. You can do anything you desire to unlike me with my lack of mobility. What I would give to be corporal. To have a nose to smell the copper tang of blood in the air and a tongue to taste it on your skin,” Hannibal said with bitterness. “What you have, this body of yours, is a gift, Will. Don’t let it go to waste.”</p><p>Will let out a soft strangled noise. He was confused by what Hannibal was saying. The emotions he was eliciting. A strange mixture of blood lust and regular lust. If lusting after a virtual man could be considered regular. Because, really, what was Hannibal but a couple of wires and glass and metal strung together? A small thing little wider than a headband covering his eyes and ears. How could this thing have this much power over him? How could Hannibal feel so all-encompassing? As though Will were a puppet and he the puppet master, pulling the strings and watching him dance. Hannibal was wrong. He had mobility and agency and he damn well knew it. He had it through Will. </p><p>“Let her go. I know you want to. You practically told me as much,” Hannibal goaded him.</p><p>"No!" Will said desperately. "How can you even say something like that? You're supposed to protect people like her. That's what you were built for."</p><p>"People like her?" Hannibal sounded amused.</p><p>"You know? Innocents, victims, bystanders."</p><p>"Really, Will, who is truly innocent?" Hannibal mused. "Surely not this daughter whose father murdered for. If not for Abigail, those girls would still be alive. Intentional or not, she had a role to play in their deaths."</p><p>"No, that's not fair." </p><p>"Perhaps not," Hannibal agreed. "Perhaps I am merely searching for an excuse."</p><p>"Virtual partners don't look for excuses to kill," Will argued.</p><p>"Neither do FBI agents and yet here we are." </p><p>There was a beat. Nothing but the sound of Abigail's wheezing breaths and the hum of Hannibal in his ears and in his mind.</p><p>"Aren't you curious what will happen if you let her die?" Hannibal asked suddenly.</p><p>Will shook his head hard enough to make himself dizzy. Maybe if he shook it hard enough he'd be able to dislodge Hannibal.</p><p>Hannibal tsked. "Now that just isn't true. I know because I am curious and you and I are one and the same. Let go, Will. For our own mutual benefit. For our own mutual pleasure."</p><p>Will took a deep breath. He let the order wash over him and fill his limbs. Just like that it was easy to uncurl his fingers and remove his hands. Because it was Hannibal doing this and not him. Will was just doing what his virtual partner told him to. Like Jack had advised him. It wasn’t his fault, really.</p><p><em>Except, s</em>omething dark and cruel in his brain whispered to him; something that sounded suspiciously like Hannibal, <em>they never told you to enjoy it.</em></p><p>Will watched apathetically as Abigail choked and gurgled. It was like he was underwater and only faint cries and gasps reached him. Hannibal’s voice was so much louder and so much stronger thrumming in his head.</p><p>“Well done,” Hannibal purred directly into his ear like some demon perched on his shoulder. Will tried to find the corresponding angel but they were nowhere to be found. Hannibal probably murdered them. He seemed to be good at that.</p><p>“What shall we do next?” Hannibal asked.</p><p>The words came out of Will unbidden and he immediately regretted them. “I don’t know. You tell me.”</p><p>“Oh, Will. I am so very glad that we were assigned to each other.” Will didn’t doubt that for an instant. He could hear the pleasure suffusing Hannibal’s voice. “We are going to have so much fun together, you and I.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Even as an AI, Hannibal can't help making the moves on Will.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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